About Mel Morris

British internet entrepreneur and co-founder of King Digital Entertainment plc, Mel Morris has an estimated net worth of $620 million (£400m) as of 2015, according to the Sunday Times rich list. Morris made his fortune from the £4.2 billion float in March 2014 of King Digital Entertainment, originally headquartered in Sweden; the London-based maker of the Candy Crush Saga mobile phone game. Morris is the largest shareholder of King, with a total stake worth £407 million. Launched in March 2011, Candy Crush is King Digital Entertainment’s most successful product. With 45 million monthly users, it was the number one game on Facebook in January 2013. Born Melvyn Morris in Littleover, Derbyshire, he set up a hardwood flooring firm and property company in Spain upon leaving school – and was a management consultant by the age of 20. Morris when on to create uDate and later sold it in 2003 for $150 million. With six others Morris founded King in 2003. Later on came uDate, whose success was put down to matching innovative technology with a large customer base. Three years after that sale, he was part of a consortium that took over Derby County.